April 14th, 2026Just sayin’…
A friend sent me a photo of a bloke practising his golf at Victoria Park in Daylesford the other day.
Nice place to work on your handicap but only if you are prepared to yell out “fore” a lot as dog walkers dodge your golf balls. It’s a public open space, for all to enjoy, but are there limits for golfers?
Then there are the dog walkers, who often walk dogs off lead. Not just at Vic Park but all over the shire. We ran into a lot of them during our own dog walks around the Glenlyon Reserve – although we kept our dogs on leashes.
And as the other dogs barrelled towards us, with the owners yelling “don’t worry they’re friendly”, and us yelling back “the cocker spaniel is not friendly”, we decided that the reserve was not quite the place for elderly dogs.
During Covid outdoor dining was given a huge push, for all the right reasons. We still think back to days at The Cosmo in Trentham, in that wonderful beer garden, with our masks firmly on, and only dropped to take a sip of wine or beer. Strange days.
But it also meant public space was given over in some instances to dining. Frangos managed to procure the parking spots in Vincent Street, Daylesford for quite some time. But then it returned to parking – much needed in the main street.
And then there is Burke Square. The Daylesford Royal Hotel was given a permit for outdoor dining and tables appeared on the grassy area in Albert Street.
But six years later the tables are still there and now there is a bit of a push to have the tables removed and the area returned to the public for picnics and random gatherings.
It is one of the few bits of green left in the town unless you head up to the botanic gardens or perhaps Rea-Lands Park – but that is a bit of a walk.
Hepburn Shire CEO Bradley Thomas said all the shire’s outdoor areas were being reviewed in the next financial year and that public space often had conflicting uses – like the golfer and the dog walkers at Vic Park.
Both believe they have a right to use public land, and I guess they do, but common sense, or the pub test, must also come into play. I think most people would put the golfer in the wrong. Maybe.
Anyway, it’s another one of those watch this space thing, literally.
Totally unrelated, I really liked Bill Wootton’s poem in this edition of Local Lines, opposite.
We have all been there. You hear the rumble and then suddenly you are in the midst of bikers, trying to let them pass, and then realising there are still plenty more to follow.
And then you see them parked up somewhere, having a laugh and really enjoying being out in the regions.
I had a motorbike once. A midlife crisis I think. I was about 40. It was only 250cc but it was new and shiny and, I thought, really cool.
I bought all the safety clothing and rode it from Frankston to work at Mornington and back.
All was going well until I was riding it in our backyard one day, quite a big yard, and the dogs ran in front of me. I ditched the bike, dented the petrol tank and bruised my ego. I also realised that if the grass hurt that much, the road would be worse.
We sold it at a very reduced price. Just sayin’…
